Cosmological implications of DESI DR2 BAO measurements in light of the latest ACT DR6 CMB data

Abstract

We report cosmological results from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) measurements of baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO) when combined with recent data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT). By jointly analyzing ACT and data and applying conservative cuts to overlapping multipole ranges, we assess how different <a:math xmlns:a="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><a:mrow><a:mi>P</a:mi><a:mi>l</a:mi><a:mi>a</a:mi><a:mi>n</a:mi><a:mi>c</a:mi><a:mi>k</a:mi><a:mo>+</a:mo><a:mi>ACT</a:mi></a:mrow></a:math> dataset combinations affect consistency with DESI. While ACT alone exhibits a tension with DESI exceeding <c:math xmlns:c="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><c:mrow><c:mn>3</c:mn><c:mi>σ</c:mi></c:mrow></c:math> within the <e:math xmlns:e="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><e:mi mathvariant="normal">Λ</e:mi><e:mi>CDM</e:mi></e:math> model, this discrepancy is reduced when ACT is analyzed in combination with . For our baseline DESI DR2 <h:math xmlns:h="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><h:mrow><h:mi>BAO</h:mi><h:mo>+</h:mo><h:mi>P</h:mi><h:mi>l</h:mi><h:mi>a</h:mi><h:mi>n</h:mi><h:mi>c</h:mi><h:mi>k</h:mi></h:mrow></h:math> <j:math xmlns:j="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><j:mrow><j:mi mathvariant="normal">P</j:mi><j:mrow><j:mi mathvariant="normal">R</j:mi><j:mn>4</j:mn><j:mo>+</j:mo><j:mi>ACT</j:mi></j:mrow></j:mrow></j:math> likelihood combination, the preference for evolving dark energy over a cosmological constant is about <n:math xmlns:n="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><n:mrow><n:mn>3</n:mn><n:mi>σ</n:mi></n:mrow></n:math>, increasing to over <p:math xmlns:p="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><p:mrow><p:mn>4</p:mn><p:mi>σ</p:mi></p:mrow></p:math> with the inclusion of type Ia supernova data. While the dark energy results remain quite consistent across various combinations of and ACT likelihoods with those obtained by the DESI collaboration, the constraints on neutrino mass are more sensitive, ranging from <r:math xmlns:r="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><r:mrow><r:mo>∑</r:mo><r:msub><r:mrow><r:mi>m</r:mi></r:mrow><r:mrow><r:mi>ν</r:mi></r:mrow></r:msub><r:mo>&lt;</r:mo><r:mn>0.061</r:mn><r:mtext> </r:mtext><r:mtext> </r:mtext><r:mi>eV</r:mi></r:mrow></r:math> in our baseline analysis, to <t:math xmlns:t="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><t:mo>∑</t:mo><t:msub><t:mi>m</t:mi><t:mi>ν</t:mi></t:msub><t:mo>&lt;</t:mo><t:mn>0.077</t:mn><t:mtext> </t:mtext><t:mtext> </t:mtext><t:mi>eV</t:mi></t:math> (95% confidence level) in the CMB likelihood combination chosen by ACT when imposing the physical prior <v:math xmlns:v="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><v:mo>∑</v:mo><v:msub><v:mi>m</v:mi><v:mi>ν</v:mi></v:msub><v:mo>&gt;</v:mo><v:mn>0</v:mn><v:mtext> </v:mtext><v:mtext> </v:mtext><v:mi>eV</v:mi></v:math>.